Heavenly Stems (Tian Gan)天干
Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding through Gui — the ten stems explained
What is Heavenly Stems (Tian Gan)?
The Heavenly Stems are ten signs — Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui — which pair with the twelve Earthly Branches to form the sixty-year cycle. Each carries a fixed element and polarity: Jia is yang Wood and Yi yin Wood, Bing is yang Fire and Ding yin Fire, and so on through the set.
How it is used in a BaZi reading
The stems form the upper half of the four pillars — year, month, day and hour. The day stem, the Day Master, stands for the person themselves; the generation and control relations between it and the remaining stems produce the Ten Gods, the direct basis for reading family, career and disposition. Stem combinations and clashes are examined alongside them.
Interpretive limits
Stem imagery — Jia Wood as a great timber, Yi Wood as a climbing vine — is figurative language used to organise a reading, and should never be taken as a literal description of real people or events.
All articles in this topic
Knowledge-base articles are written in Chinese, the source language of these classical texts.
- Jia Wood Destiny Analysis: Exploring the Resilience and Wisdom of Life
- An In-Depth Exploration of Yi Wood in BaZi
- Bing Fire: Blazing Sun, Light of Civilization
- Ding Fire: The Lamplight of Civilization, the Spark of Wisdom
- Wu: A BaZi Interpretation of Unshakable Solidity
- Ji
- Exploring the BaZi Mysteries of Geng Metal
- Xin
- Ren: Yang Water, the Wellspring of Wisdom
- Gui: The Suppleness of Water, Embodiment of Wisdom and Perception
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